After reading those books I did take one practice attempt which is provided by Sans when you buy the exam. I passed with about 74% and had scored low in rootkits, steganography and covert channels.

The reason was may be because the books were published quite a while ago, so I pulled out the list of tools from most of the sections of CEHv7 syllabus.http://www.eccouncil.org/courses/professional_series/ceh_course_outline.aspxRefering to that list I went through a extensive list of the tools mentioned. Some tools just read about them online and some praticed them.The main reason to go for CEHv7 was that I have a CEH6.1 and CEH is good to list out number of tools but not as practical as GCIH

I would recommend to rather save up some cash for the Sans live conference or get any sort of Sans materials. It would help a lot more to understand things in a practical way. I recently took up SANS Sec as part of work study program and the amount of real life practical examples and best practices are offered by the Trainer is just immense and so useful.

After reading those books I did take one practice attempt which is provided by Sans when you buy the exam. I passed with about 74% and had scored low in rootkits, steganography and covert channels.

The reason was may be because the books were published quite a while ago, so I pulled out the list of tools from most of the sections of CEHv7 syllabus.http://www.eccouncil.org/courses/professional_series/ceh_course_outline.aspxRefering to that list I went through a extensive list of the tools mentioned. Some tools just read about them online and some praticed them.The main reason to go for CEHv7 was that I have a CEH6.1 and CEH is good to list out number of tools but not as practical as GCIH